The typical noise levels associated with a home environment vary significantly over the course of a day, as well as between weekdays and weekends. In a typical household, the pattern of noise variation may be quite regular. During daytime hours, many sources, including children at play, television programs, road traffic, appliance operation, and background music, contribute to a high level of noise. During the day, a high volume for a telephone ringer or answering machine is appropriate, in order to ensure that an occupant is alerted to an incoming call or a message. At night, ambient noise is significantly reduced, and sounds associated with the telephone become increasingly obtrusive to the occupants, especially during sleep hours.
In order to minimize the disturbance associated with nighttime calls, some users resort to changing the ringer volume every evening and morning. However, users may often forget to adjust the ringer in the morning, leading, for instance, to missed telephone calls during the day. In addition, most households have more than one telephone, typically several, each of which typically has its own dedicated ringer volume control. In order to minimize noise at night a user might have to travel throughout a house adjusting each of many phones. In addition to a ringer, many telephone systems have other features which alert a user by emitting sound or other signals, including call-screening features, voice announce features, answering machines, and error tones associated with a keypad. Manually disabling and enabling all such signaling devices and machines (hereafter referred to as “signaling features”) on a daily basis for several telephones would be extremely cumbersome.
In light of the foregoing discussion it will be appreciated that a need exists for a more convenient method to automatically adjust the sound levels associated with a telephone system, to accommodate a user's lifestyle.